Chapter 29

“Are you okay?”
I couldn’t answer him. I was still sobbing, my breath skipping sometimes. The way it does when you have cried heavily for a while.
I wiped away some strayed tears from my face, preventing myself from another crying session.
“Mira?”
Max words were softly spoken, trying to sooth me I guess. One would expect him to be raged, kicking in the gas pedal and driving madly. He was the exact opposite.
Again he said my name, but now he was looking at me sideways, encouraging me to talk.
“I have to get to work.”
That was all I managed to say.
Ear deafening silence filled the car, as we were both too emotional to talk.
My thoughts were all over the place and eventually all I wanted was to be at work and forget about all of this.
I didn’t even realize Max had stopped the car. It was weird, because I thought we would have been in the city already. When I looked out of my window I saw we weren’t in the city,but we were actually at his house.
“Come, I’ll make you some tea”, he said as he urged me to get out.
He got out of the car and walked around it to open my door.
“Max, take me to my work. Mr. Hensly is gonna be pissed if I don’t show up”, I said, not moving a muscle.
“Mira, how on earth are you supposed to do your job right now?”, he asked.
“I have to go Max. I need this job”, I said stoic.
“I’ll call him, besides you were called in because yesterday I had an emergency meeting with him about our collaboration. That’s why he wanted you in today”, he explained.
As in slowmotion my head craned his way and I looked up to him.
“Please, just take me to my work.”
“Don’t be so stubborn girl.”
With one hand he leaned on the car door, frustrating he ran his other hand through his hair heaving a big sigh.
“If you’re not taking me, I will call a cab”, I said searching through my purse to get my phone.
He closed the car door and walked around the car to get back into his seat.
While he started the car again he kept looking at me, but I turned my head towards the window.
The ride from his house to my work was a silent one. We were both in our feelings and neither of us had the energy to say anything, but through his body language I could see he was less than amused with me.
“Thank you.” My tone of voice was annoyed. I wanted to make sure he knew I was not happy at all with him first driving to his place.
He kept the engine running when we stopped in front of the building.
“You must be the most stubborn girl on this earth.”
The words came out of his mouth slowly, emphasizing every word firmly.
“Max, I need to do my job and I want to be alone for now.”
His hands were wrapped around his steering wheel, he gazed outside and heaved a sigh.
“You don’t have to do this alone. I’m here for you. Don’t you know that by now?”, his words now sounded more desperate than mad or annoyed.
I stayed silent, ready to leave the car. My right hand was already on the door handle.
“Let me help you, baby girl.”
His words floated through the air.
I looked at him with teary eyes.
“Oh baby”, he said his eyes pointed at my cheek. “Look at what he’s done to you.”
He reached for my face, his fingertips stopped just a few millimeters before they could touch my cheek. I turned away my face, leaving him to do nothing else but lower his arm and placing his hand back onto his steering wheel.
His facial expression said ‘you can’t go inside there looking like that’  but he didn’t actually speak the words out loud.
“I will call a cab when I’m done. You don’t need to pick me up.”
Then I left his car and slammed the door shut.
I took a deep breath before I entered the building. Lucky for me Eve wasn’t there, so I could sneak to the elevators without anyone seeing me. I needed to get my shit together before I would see Mr. Hensley. I didn’t feel like sharing what happened with him and so I hoped he would only be focussed on work like he mostly is.
Trying to hide my still shaky voice I greeted him; “Hello Mr. Hensley. I am here. Sorry it took a bit longer than I anticipated.”
Without even looking up he said; “Hi Mira, I’m glad you’re here. There are some problems with these contracts and some of the licenses to renovate.”
He then signed for me to come over to his desk and he showed me the documents.
Yes, he is in full work mode!
“I think I see the problem with this contract”, I said, taking it from him, “let me see the others too and I will go over them.”
“Don’t forget these too”, he handed me the documents of the licenses, “we need them to be in order before Tuesday or we will have some serious problems. That’s why I called you in. Have you spoken to Mr. Woods yet? He has some questions too.”
Briefly he looked up, frowned while looking at me and then awaited my answer.
“No, I haven’t yet.”
He then stood up and walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder.
“Mira, are you okay?”, he then asked, looking me in my eyes.
“I am fine sir. Don’t worry. Do you want me to contact Mr. Woods right away?”
I tried to pretend everything was fine, but of course I could see that he knew I was lying. As long as he didn’t ask any more questions I’d be fine. I wanted to get on those contracts right away, so I could get my mind off of what was going on.
“No, that won’t be necessary. You know what, just send him an email that you will contact him tomorrow.”
I nodded in understanding and then I excited his office.
Although I didn’t want to, as soon as my computer was fired up I opened my email to contact Max.
It was a very formal email and I didn’t know how he would react to it. He wasn’t happy at all when I left the car, but he didn’t seem to be really upset either. I wondered what he was doing right now.
Then I shook my head, I didn’t have time to think about all of that. I needed to focus on these contracts and licenses.
So I got started just to not lose any time.
Like in a movie the day turned into night, hours felt like minutes and by the time it was seven p.m I was exhausted.
I decided to take the documents that I need to go through with me so I could do some work at home. I was getting pretty hungry too, my stomach was growling harder than a lion attacking its prey.
I asked Mr. Hensley permission to leave and then I left to go home. There was only one problem; I forgot that Max had dropped me off and my car was at home.

Just before I hit the ground floor I decided to take a cap. Normally I wouldn’t mind walking, but with all this stuff and the cold really kicking in I didn’t really want to.
When I got out of the elevator I walked up to the front door, there were a few benched there, I could put my stuff down to call the cab and wait there, but when I got closer I spotted a familiar car through the windows.
“What are you doing here?”, I asked.
“I was waiting for you.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew you had to go home at some point and you didn’t have your car here.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Mira, please don’t fight me. Just get in the car.”
He held the passenger door open and awaited for me to get in.
I was too tired to fight him, besides I didn’t feel like calling and waiting for a cab, so this was the best option.
“Let me take these from you.” He then grabbed the documents from me.
He walked around the car and carefully placed them on the backseat of the car, then he got in.
“So, you said you’d call me back tomorrow”, he smirked.
We were halfway to his house when he broke the silence and made this joke.
I couldn’t suppress a smile. This man, I swear.
“Ah, see you can’t escape my jokes”, he laughed, looking at me from the corner of his eyes.
“This one was okay.” I didn’t want to give him too much room, before he’d think he was some kind of comedian.
“Did you see my reply?”, he asked.
“I did.”
“Then why didn’t you respond, Miss Prasad?”
“Oooh we’re getting formal now. Okay, okay”, I said nodding my head. “I was very busy, Mr. Woods. My boss said to let you know I’d call you tomorrow. There were other things more important.”
Both of our voices turned from joking around into serious and formal and to be honest, it kind of turned me on. I could tell Max liked this too.
“I can’t think of anything more important than my business being handled.”
We arrived at his house, waiting for the gates to open, which was slower than a turtle on drugs, I said; “Oh, but I was handling your business, Mr Woods.” I spoke his name more sultry than I intended.
He stopped in front of his house.
“I know you can handle my business, Miss Prasad”, he said as he put the car in park, while he had this penetrating look.
His eyes stayed focussed on mine, he moved his face towards me, his right hand wanting to grab my face. His fingers only brushed against my cheek but it was enough to cause a twinge of pain to go through me.
As a natural reaction I withdrew my face and turned away.
“Shit”, he cursed under his breath. “I’m sorry baby.”
“No, it’s okay. Maybe we should get inside.”
I opened up my car door and got out to get the documents in the backseat.
Max was just a bit faster and already got them, we then walked into the house in silence.
“I took the liberty to order us some food”, he broke the silence. “I thought you’d might be hungry.”
I smiled; “Thank you.”
“Do you want something to drink?”, he asked.
“Yes, tea please. I will be in the living room. I need to finish this”, I answered while walking to his living room.
Max went to the kitchen and I crashed down on his couch. I spread out the documents, trying to find the one I was working on earlier.
While I was busy circling every little detail that was wrong, Max brought me my tea.
He shoved aside some papers and sat down next to me.
“Honey, we need to talk about what happened.”
I kept my eyes on my papers, still picking out the faults.
“Thank you for the tea”, I said.
“Let me at least look at your face”, carefully he pushed up my chin.
His face had a worried yet caring look.
I couldn’t bear to look him in the eye, so instead I lowered my eyes.
“You’re eye is turning black and blue, and you’re cheek is swollen.”
His voice was fragile and I could hear how much he wanted to switch places with me, so he could carry the pain.
Carefully he pulled away the papers from me, putting them on the table, he then grabbed my hands and held them.
“Has he done this before?”, he asked.
I bit my lip, trying to prevent myself from crying. Then I shook my head.
“This was the first time he hit me, but he has called me names before”, I whispered.
I could see him get mad, but as soon as he saw my face he tried to hide his anger.
“I wish there was something I could do”, he whispered.
“You’re here, that’s all I need.”
“We should have put some ice on it, to prevent it from swelling up”, he said, still looking at my face.
“The situation didn’t allow it, hopefully it will be better tomorrow”, I said.
He suddenly stood up, pressed a kiss on my forehead and walked away.
I had no clue what he was going to do, in the meanwhile I drank from my tea and went over some papers.
“Here”, he handed me a bag with ice, “put this on your cheek. Maybe it will help a little.”
I took the bag from him and gently put it on my cheek. I cringed a little when the cold bag came in touch with my skin.
“Thanks”, a small smile accompanied my words.
“Do you want to talk about what happened?”, he softly asked.
“No”, I whispered.
He got the hint and he looked at all the papers I was surrounded with.
“How’s the work going?”
I heaved a sigh and gave him a look; “Do you really wanna know?”
He laughed saying: “I didn’t know I made so much trouble.”
“It’s not only you, these are from other clients too.”
“Ah, well that’s a relief.”
He then stood up and walked over to pour himself a glass of whiskey, grabbed his laptop and sat down in a chair.
“If you don’t mind I’m gonna do some work too. I have some things I really need to take care of.”
“No, that’s fine. I really need to take care of this so you do your thing”, I said.
We both did our thing in silence, ate the food that he ordered for us and continued our work. It was actually kinda handy having him around, so I could ask him things that needed to be changed or looked over.
Every now and then he’d walk away to take care of a phone call.
I don’t know until when I kept going, but at one point my eyes couldn’t stay open anymore. I tried to fight it but it didn’t work.
“Aaaaww”, Max said as he walked into the living room. He put away his phone in his pocket and walked over to me. Papers were scattered around me, there were even a few on me.
Carefully he put away the papers and then he scooped me up in his arms.
He took me upstairs to his bedroom and laid me down on his bed. I must have been too tired to even open my eyes or anything, because the next morning when his alarm woke me up, I still had my clothes on.
Before I could even blink I could hear the shower running, Max was already out of bed, it seemed that he was wide awake immediately. Me, on the other hand, needed some time to wake up a little bit. I stretched and yawned, before I left the bed to go to the bathroom. I decided to use the one in the hallway, because it felt a little weird to me to use the toilet in his bathroom.
Then I walked back up to his bedroom and walked towards his bathroom. By the time I was there he was already buttoning up his shirt. His wet hair was dripping a bit, God he looked sexy when he just got out of the shower. He looked up at me, just when he was finishing up the last button, at that moment all I wanted was to rip his shirt open and kiss him.
“Good morning my beautiful princess”, his deep voice spoke.
“Good morning my sexy man. You were up early”, I said when I got undressed.
“Always am.” In the meanwhile he laced up his shoes.
I got in the shower and I saw he had bought me a toothbrush. It was neatly placed in a cup next to his. I smiled at the sight of it. I hadn’t even thought about that.
While I was taking a shower, he stood in the door opening, fully dressed in another one of his fancy suits.
“The clothes we bought together are in my closet. I’m going downstairs to prepare us some breakfast. See you there?”, he said, fixing his collar.
“Thank you and thank you. I will be right there my lovely man.”
I was glad I had some stuff over at his place, I didn’t expect to need it this soon, but now that I did I was glad we went shopping.
A quick look in the mirror showed me the bruise and my swollen cheek. It still hurt, but luckily for me the ice that Max had given me made it a little less swollen. It was still visible though, but there was nothing I could do about it.
After I got dressed I hurried downstairs, I needed to gather all my documents. When I peeked my head around the corner I saw they were no longer in the living room.
“Max?”
“Yes, baby girl.”
“Where are all my files?”, I asked walking into the kitchen.
“There they are. I had put them together last night, after I put you to bed”, said smiling.
I walked over to the corner of his bar and looked at the neat pile of files, then I sat down next to him.
“You know, I actually don’t know what you normally have for breakfast so I made you some cereal.”
This was the cutest ever. My heart skipped a beat and I smiled looking at the bowl of cereal in front of me. Next to it was a cappuccino.
I reached for his face and put my lips onto his.
“Can I have this every morning please?”, he said. He kept looking at me and all of a sudden I got shy.
“This breakfast is okay, thank you”, then I started to eat.
“You should have seen how you’d fallen asleep last night. It was so cute”, he said after he took his last sip of coffee.
I only gave him a look as my mouth was full of milk mixed with cereal.
“I wish I could fall asleep to you every night, baby girl”, his voice changed when he said this. It was softer and seemed deeper than before.
“Max.. I…”
“I know one day I will. That’s enough for now”, his cockyself said. He stood up and put his cup and his plate into the dishwasher.
“If you’re ready I will drop you off at your work.” Then he looked at me and I think he realised again what happened to my face. “Do you even wanna go? I mean with everyone there today.”
For a moment we stayed silent. I didn’t really think about that. I didn’t put on any make up, besides some mascara and light eyeshadow. I didn’t have the make-up to hide this bruise, also even if I did, they’d still see it’s swollen.
While I got up and put my bowl and cup into the dishwasher I said; “No, it’s fine. I can handle it. Plus I really need to be there, I have tons of work to do.”
“Are you sure?”, he asked as he put his hands around my waist.
“You know I can help you as the CEO of Woods Inc. right?”, a cocky smile appeared on his face while saying this.
“I know baby, but I am not working for you.”
“I wish.”
“I know.”
A kiss distracted us from actually leaving. This made me not want to leave at all, but stay at his place all day.
“I think we should go now.” I tried to say while Max was still kissing me.
“You’re right, if I don’t stop kissing you now we’ll end up doing other work”, he smirked.

Max dropped me off and I think this was one of the few times I was ever a bit late. Quickly I made my way to the elevators. I tried to hide my face a little bit so people wouldn’t see it. While I was in the car I had come up with the excuse that I have had an emergency visit with my dentist. I mean you never know what people might ask. I knew Mr. Hensley wouldn’t really ask, but if somehow he would I could give him a good explanation.
Halfway through the day I needed to contact Max. I knew I could have called him on his personal number, but I never knew who would come in and hear us talk. I wanted to be sure no one would be able to figure out that we were seeing each other.
“Hello this is Miss Prasad, I am calling for Mr. Woods”, I said.
“Oh hi Mira! There is someone with him right now, can you hold-”, she stopped her sentence and I could hear someone in the background. I guess his meeting was over.
“Hold, on Mira”, his secretary said.
Just before she put me on hold I heard a familiar voice, but I couldn’t place it. When she connected me to Max I knew who that voice belonged to; Claire.
“Mr. Woods”, his formal voice spoke.
“Hi Mr. Woods, this is Miss Prasad speaking, I’m calling on behalf of Mr. Hensley.”
“Oh do you now, baby?”
There was not one word that didn’t scream sex.
“There still seemed to be a problem with the contract from the mansion in L.A”, I said.
I ignored his words on purpose.
“Mira, you don’t need to act all formal now.”
“Since you bring that up, what was Claire doing with you?”
Silence followed, I swear I could hear him think through the phone.
“I am not gonna lie to you, Mira. She works here now.”
Within seconds I felt the need to throw up.
“Did you know about this?”, I asked, trying not to sound upset.
“Maybe this is not the right time to talk about this. Let’s discuss this tonight.”
Oh, so now he wants to start being professional? What’s wrong with him!
I took a deep breath and swallowed my pride.
“Sure. Now, let’s cut down to business. Let me know what needs to be changed and I will take care of this.”
“I will have the changes sent to you. When you’re done, please send them back to my secretary and it will be fine.”
“Sure”, I said and I wanted to hang up.
“Mira, wait. Please let’s talk about this tonight.”
“I will talk to you later, Mr. Woods, have a nice day.”
Then I hung up the phone.
Everything in my being screamed this was no good, but for now I couldn’t do anything about it. I had to put my personal feelings aside to not let it interfere with my profession.
I got back to work and did exactly what Max had asked from me.
Not long before I could wrap up everything, I called a cab. Since Max had dropped me off and I didn’t want to be around him tonight, I had to find another way to get home.
Just when I got off the phone my cell phone started to ring.
Max
I decided to let it go and finish up the last things, so I could be downstairs in time for my taxi. When I got outside I saw him leaning against his car.
I recognized his wool coat, his fancy scarf and shoes. He was busy checking his phone and I was hoping to get away before he saw me, but just when that thought crossed my mind, he lifted his head and saw me. He immediately put away his phone and walked over to me. At the same time my taxi arrived and walked up to the road to get in.
“Mira, wait!”, he yelled.
I turned around and saw he fastened his pace. Then I opened up the door of the cab and got it. I saw him looking through the window, his hand was ready to grab the door handle, but at the moment he reached out the taxi drove away.